Outstanding Work: Comedy Revolution Explore the history and current state of LGBTQ comedy—pioneers, breakthroughs, and setbacks. Pictured above are Lily Tomlin (left), Wanda Sykes, Joel Kim Booster and Trixie Martel.
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“Comedy has always been a reflection of culture, for better or worse,” said Paige Hurwitz. Her new Netflix documentary about the history and current state of LGBTQ comedy is proof of that. Through archival footage, performances and interviews, Outstanding Work: Comedy Revolution Spanning nearly a century of LGBTQ comedy, including the milestones and setbacks of queer comedians in their pursuit of making people laugh.
This documentary follows a who’s who of comedy across generations. Lily Tomlin, Rosie O’Donnell, Eddie Izzard, Sandra Bernhard, Billy Eichner, Fortune Feimster, Tig Notaro and Solomon George is one of many actors who have told personal stories about developing their comedy style and dealing with homophobia.
Page Hurwitz delivered opening remarks at the conference Outstanding Work: Comedy Revolution Premiering on June 7, 2024 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
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Hurwitz began her stand-up comedy career in San Francisco’s Castro District in the late 1990s. Today, she writes, produces, and directs comedy specials and television series. When she started making the documentary, she knew there were a few things she had to get right: “We’re gay, so I wanted to make it dynamic. There’s nothing worse than mediocrity.”
To ensure her documentary dazzles, Hurwitz organized a massive event at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, featuring a marquee lineup of LGBTQ comedians. She turned the event into a Netflix special and has clips of it interspersed throughout the documentary.
revelatory moments in it outstanding are interviews with comedians who might be more famous if they hadn’t come out.
Robin Taylor is at Outstanding Work: Comedy Revolution.
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Robin Taylor, one of the first comedians to come out as gay on national television, says she has never come out. “Closets are vertical coffins,” she declares in the film. “All you do is suffocate.”
Taylor’s comedy career suffered after she included jokes about Anita Bryant in her performances. Bryant, a former beauty pageant winner, singer and Christian, was one of the most vocal voices in the anti-gay movement. One joke declared that Kobe Bryant was “to Christianity what digital painting is to art.”
“That’s why no one knows her name,” Hurwitz said of Taylor. “She should be a household name because she’s so funny and so talented.”
Hurwitz and a small staff pored over hundreds of archival performances and news clips to show how queer comedians advanced or suffered, depending, from one decade to the next. the political and cultural climate of the time. “Mother Mably” stars an openly gay character in a 1930s film and the so-called “Lavender Scare” during the Cold War.
As comedian Scott Thompson said in the documentary, “I just think life can change in an instant, and society can change in an instant.”
Thompson points out that the “embracing” of gay culture in the 1970s – think disco and country folk – radically shifted in the 1980s with the AIDS epidemic.
“Time went back to 30 or 40 years ago almost overnight,” he said. “Gay men back then were considered vile.”
Scott Thompson/Buddy Cole perform “Jokefest” at Netflix’s Greek Theater.
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“Comedy at the time was incredibly homophobic,” Hurwitz said, “and we had a lot of famous comedians who chose to turn this tragedy into fodder for their corny comedy routines. So whether it was Andrew Dice Clay Or Sam Kinison, or frankly, Eddie Murphy.
But comedians know how to fight back, and Sandra Bernhard’s politically charged cabaret-style performances were a force during the AIDS crisis. As she explains in the documentary, “It’s like the next wave that has to go full steam ahead.”
Comedian and actor Joel Kim Booster, who was interviewed for the documentary, said he was “shocked” when he saw the final cut outstanding. He said it made him grateful for all the queer comedians who blazed a trail for his generation. “We’re not the ones breaking in. We just walked through it,” he said.
joel king booster Outstanding Work: Comedy Revolution.
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outstanding showcases the challenges gay performers still face, the most glaring of which is transphobic material from big-name comedians. But Paige Hurwitz said LGBTQ comedians will continue to take to the stage, making people laugh and changing culture.
“You’re sharing who you are with an audience, and that’s very powerful,” she says, “because laughter disarms people. You make the personal universal so that we realize how much alike we actually are. in differences.
Bob the Drag Queen, Trixie Mattel, Rosie O’Donnell perform at Netflix’s Greek Theater for Joke Festival.
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Audio and digital versions of this story were edited by Ciera Crawford. Audio story produced by Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento. Digital version produced by Beth Novi.
